The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-11-19
Mr.. Atkinson,s Suggestion.

Mr.. Atkin5on'S Suggestion.
! Edward Atkinson, of Boston, the political
economist whose writings have attracted II
| great deal of attention within the last few
! years, has made a suggestion looking to the
settlement of the fishery dispute that is
being very generally commented on 1t is,
that this country shall purchase the prov
| inces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and
! Cape Breton. He thinks that the Dominion
| of Canada would be willing to part with
them for $50, 200, 900 and it may be that
! they could be obtained for that sum. The
amount would not be very large for this
| country, whose treasury now contains more
money than the government knows what to
do with. 1t would be about equal to the
surplus which is accumulated in five
months.
The purchase of the provinces would of
course settle the fishery question forever.
There would be need of no more treaties
with regard to it. But it is not certain that
this country wants the provinces Before
public sentiment could be settled ON that
point there would have to be a great deal
of discussion. There is much TO be said in
favor Of Mr.. Atkinson's suggestion and
much against it, The question is a large
one, and would present many phases if it
were to be seriously considered.
The reason that Mr. Atkinson places the
amount at $4,000 900 is this: The debt of
the Dominion of Canada is now about $50
for each inhabitant. A great pars of
this was contracted in building the Cana
dian Pacific Railway, which will not per-
haps pay running expenses in the next
quarter of century. The provinces which
Mr.. Atkinson proposes to purchase contains
about 100000 inhabitants, and they are
benefited very little by this railway. The
$50 100000 is their portion of the
public debt, and that sum would enable
Canada to complete the railway, and keep
it in running order until it would pay ex-
penses. Therefore MIR. Atkinson thinks that
Canada would be glad to entertain his
suggestion.
But as far as the fishery question is con-
cerned could not that be settled by a COM
mercial union, or treaty of reciprocity!
From 1854 to 1868 this country had a treaty
Of reciprocity with Canada, and there was
then no trouble between the two countries,
about the fisheries or anything else. AS
soon as that treaty ended the fishery trouble
began.
MIR. Atkinson points out that we could
very well afford to admit Canadian fish free
even If we derived no other benefit from a
commercial union, although we should re-
ceive other and greater benefits. The
value of fish annually imported from Canada
is about $2,250, 900, and the import tax
amounts to something like $5OO,000 The
only people benefited by the tax are few
owners of fishing vessels at Gloucester and
Portland, and they employ New Brunswick
and Nova Scotia fishermen. The people of
New England, who are the main consumers
OF the fish, have to pay the import tax. The
removal of the tax, therefore, would
benefit hundreds of thousands of peo-
pie, while its retention benefits only few.
The advocates of the doctrine of protection,
however, would doubtless claim that the
tax ought to be retained even though those
injured were a thousand times as numerous
as those benefited. Mr.. Atkinson calls at
tention to the fact that the value of the
eggs imported into this country from
Canada annually is as great as that of the
fish. The eggs, however, are not taxed,
and he does not see why fish should be.
The farmers of this country who supply the
market with eggs are just as much entitled
to protection as the few fishermen of Port
land and Gloucester Mr.. Atkinson makes
a good many other points in discussing his
suggestion, all of which are very pertinent
to it.